Dubai: A clerk has been accused of assaulting his roommate with a knife after he got angry for being the only one among his housemates who was forced to cuts vegetables and prepare food.

The 20-year-old Pakistani clerk was said to have been cutting onions and tomatoes for preparing a meal when he was angered by his countryman roommate and stabbed him with a knife under his armpit last August.

The clerk and the roommate had a dispute which led to the stabbing incident, according to records, before the roommate’s father and other cohabitants called the police.

The stabbed roommate was rushed to hospital where he underwent an unsuccessful operation before his father flew him to Pakistan for treatment.

Police took the 20-year-old assailant into custody.

Prosecutors accused the clerk of assaulting the roommate and causing him an injury.

The suspect pleaded not guilty before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Monday, and contended that he mistakenly stabbed the victim when he had tried to defend himself.

According to the charge sheet, prosecutors said the suspect caused a 20 per cent permanent disability to the roommate without intending to do it.

When presiding judge Urfan Omar asked the suspect if he had stabbed the victim and injured him, the 20-year-old replied: “Yes, it happened by mistake. I did not intend to stab him. I have paid for all his medical expenses and the injury happened unintentionally.”

He then handed the court a written waiver that he claimed to have obtained from the roommate’s father.

The stabbed roommate’s father testified to prosecutors that the incident happened at the residence that his family shared with other housemates [including the suspect] in Hor Al Anz.

“The suspect was slicing tomatoes and onions while another person was also present in the kitchen. That person asked my son about the whereabouts of the spices … and my son told him. Suddenly the suspect threw the knife down on the floor and shouted, ‘Nobody helps me … while I cut the vegetables and everybody else is sitting around.’ My son then told him to ask the other person to help him, turned to walk out when the suspect picked up and knife, and called my son. When my son turned around, the suspect stabbed him. We all tried to stop the fight. I had to fly my son to Pakistan for treatment since his operation here didn’t succeed,” the father claimed to prosecutors.

A police corporal told to prosecutors that the suspect claimed that he stabbed the victim after the latter threw vegetables at him and ordered him to chop it.

Presiding judge Omar adjourned the case until the suspect’s lawyer presents her defence on March 13.